THE DEPARTMENT of Health has apologised to the family of an elderly Roscommon woman whose application for a monthly allowance was refused on the basis that she was too old to apply for it.
The apology issued after an investigation by the Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly found she had been discriminated against on age grounds as the Mobility Allowance Scheme under which she sought assistance denied payments to first-time applicants once they were over 66 years of age, contrary to the Equal Status Act 2000.
A report of the Ombudsman’s investigation published yesterday states that the upper age limit applying to the scheme “is illegal and has been since the commencement of the Equal Status Act in October 2000”.
The report says the Roscommon woman, who is not named, was over 80 when she applied for the allowance in June 2008. The allowance is currently worth €208.50 a month and is paid, subject to a means test, to people who have a disability and are unable to walk or use public transport but would benefit from getting out and about by means of other transport such as taxis.
When the allowance was refused by the HSE, the woman’s brother complained to the Ombudsman. The report says the woman died in October last year before the investigation was completed. However, her complaint was upheld and the Department of Health has agreed to pay the grant to her family and to backdate it to June 2008.
Ms O’Reilly sharply criticises the Department of Health in her report, stating that it has shown no sense of urgency in seeking to bring the Mobility Allowance Scheme – from which 4,500 people benefited in 2009 at a total cost of more than €11 million – into compliance with the Equal Status Act, even 11 years after its commencement.
This “must reflect very poorly on the department”, she says, and it happened despite the fact that in a not dissimilar case in 2008 the department removed the maximum age limit of 66 years for the Motorised Transport Grant, after a woman who was refused a payment on age grounds, also by HSE West, complained to the Equality Authority.
The department accepted that the woman’s contention was valid at the time.
“It is difficult to understand why the same restriction, applying in a similar type scheme [mobility allowance], has not been removed,” the report states.
The HSE, the report adds, was administering the scheme on the basis of a Department of Health circular, though Ms O’Reilly says the HSE should have been questioning the department on the continued application of the age limit for this scheme.
While the Department of Health said the scheme was being reviewed and that its future was something the Minister for Health would have to adjudicate on, Ms O'Reilly says in her report entitled Too Old to be Equal?that reviews have been promised for some time. She recommends the review be completed within the next six months and the department has accepted this recommendation.
“If the cost implications of extending the scheme to people over 66 years cannot be borne in present financial circumstances, then it may be necessary to make other changes to the scheme, consistent with the Equal Status Act and with other legal requirements, which allow it to operate within the resources available.
“Postponing action, or taking no action at all, is not acceptable behaviour on the part of a public body in a society which is ruled by law. This is particularly the case where those most affected by the failure to act constitute a vulnerable group which is unlikely to be able to organise and lobby with a view to vindicating its rights,” the report says.
“An intention to undertake a review at some future date is not a justification for continuing with a practice which is already known to be illegal.”